Luigi Ceccaroni

Innovation Lead

For internship and PhD possibilities in the Innovation team (or at Earthwatch Europe in general), please refer to this contact page.

Biography

Luigi Ceccaroni manages strategic innovation at Earthwatch Europe.

Luigi obtained a BSc degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Bologna, with a thesis on paleoclimatic change in Antarctica; an MSc degree in Information-Technology Languages and Systems from BarcelonaTech (UPC); a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from UPC, with a thesis on ontologies and environmental decision-support systems; and an Executive MBA from EAE Business School. His activities include leading international initiatives on impact assessment in citizen science, ocean and water literacy in schools, the development of citizen science in Africa, GenAI, and standardisation and interoperability of citizen-science data and metadata. Previously, he designed and developed decision support systems in the healthcare and environmental domains.

2018-2026: Luigi is at Earthwatch Europe, trying to use citizen science to empower additional people to join the debate about the future.

2014-2020: In 2019-2020, Luigi was vice-chair of the European Citizen Science Association (ECSA). Between 2014 and 2019, he served as a member of the Board of Directors of ECSA.

2010-2014: Luigi worked as a senior member of the research staff at Eurecat (Spain), where he founded and coordinated the Personalised Computational Medicine research group.

2003-2011: Luigi was a senior member of the research staff of the Software Department at UPC.

2003-2010: As the Director of research at TMT Factory (Barcelona, Spain), Luigi developed interactive television for blind people; a service of personalised and accessible orientation for tourism; and combined coordination and organisation mechanisms with model-driven design to create new software-development tools and services.

2005-2009: Luigi was an adjunct professor of Artificial Intelligence at UPC.

2001-2003: Luigi worked as a member of the research staff at Fujitsu Laboratories of America, in their Silicon Valley labs. He participated in the evaluation of European research proposals submitted in response to the call FP7-ENV-2007-1 for Theme 6, “Environment”.

Luigi has authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and managed a total of more than 20 million euros as lead researcher from 2008 to 2025.

Activities

2024-present: Member of the Advisory Committee of the World Water Quality Alliance (WWQA)
2022-present:Co-chair of the ECSA’s working group “Projects, data, tools and technology”
2016-2025: Member and ECSA liaison of the AAPS’s international Data and Metadata Working Group
2016-2020: Chair of the working group to “Improve data standardisation and interoperability” of the COST Action “Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe”

Research interests

Citizen science
Impact assessment
Ocean and water literacy
Semantics
Personalisation
Application of artificial intelligence

Projects

ProBleu (Horizon Europe)

Luigi is the principal investigator of the ProBleu project (2023-2026).

MICS (Horizon 2020)

Luigi was the principal investigator and coordinator of the MICS project (2019-2021).

EU-Citizen.Science (Horizon 2020)

Luigi coordinated Earthwatch’s efforts in EU-Citizen.Science (2019-2021).

COS4CLOUD (Horizon 2020)

Luigi coordinated Earthwatch’s efforts in COS4CLOUD (2019-2023).

Citizen Science to promote creativity, scientific literacy, and innovation throughout Europe (COST Action)

Luigi was the chairperson of the working group to “Improve data standardisation and interoperability” of the COST Action (2016-2020) and an editor of the book “The science of citizen science”.

Citclops/EyeOnWater (FP7)

Luigi was the principal investigator and coordinator of the Citclops project (2012-2015), a € 5 million European project focused on a citizens’ observatory for coastal and ocean monitoring.

Synergy-COPD (FP7)

Luigi wrote the winning proposal for the Synergy-COPD project (2011-2014), a € 5 million European project on modelling and simulation for systems medicine, for which he served as principal investigator and coordinator.

Publications

Engaging the Public in Scientific Research to Enhance Digital Twins of the Ocean and Their Practical Applications. In OCEANS 2025 Brest, 1–7.

Ceccaroni, L., Pearlman, J., Angel, D., Dreo, J., Edelist, D., Freitas, C., Ganchev, T., Ipektsidis, C., Kruniawan, F., Laudy, C., Markova, V., Mlandu, D. N., Paredes, H., Oliveira, M. A., Simpson, P., Venus, V., Wahyudi, F., & Parkinson, S. (2025).

Supporting the Upscaling of Citizen Science to Address Global Challenges. In Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 10(1).

Sprinks, J. C., Dowthwaite, L., Ceccaroni, L., Kiessling, T., Fraisl, D., Maccani, G., Leal, A. S., Gras-Velazquez, A., Liconti, A., Azevedo, K. P., Das, K., Parkinson, S., & Malta, M. (2025).

Citizen Science and Ocean Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between Society and the Ocean. In C. Certomà (Ed.), Blue Kinships: An Exploration of Society & the Ocean (pp. 101–122). Springer Nature Switzerland.

Parkinson, S., Woods, S. M., Sprinks, J., Cruz, B., Das, K., Witter, A., Lessin, G., Edelist, D., Angel, D., & Ceccaroni, L. (2025).

Citizen science and the nexus approach: unlocking synergies for sustainable development. In Sustainability Nexus Forum. 33, 4

Gharesifard, M., Ceccaroni, L., Gold, M., Berti Suman, A. & Das, K. (2025).

New opportunities to promote blue schools: scholar grants, educational resources, and citizen science under the ProBleu project. In EDULEARN24 Proceedings, 10224–10225.

Molina, E. B., Turo, M., Ceccaroni, L., Woods, S., Parkinson, S., Sprinks, J., Lessin, G., Simis, S. G. H., Flynn, K. J., Butkeviciene, E., Costa, P., Ribeiro, A., Cardoso, F., & Piera, J. (2024).

The Iliad digital twins of the ocean: opportunities for citizen science. In ARPHA Proceedings, 6, 61–65.

Parkinson, S., Ceccaroni, L., Edelist, D., Robertson, E., Horincar, R., Laudy, C., Ganchev, T., Markova, V., Pearlman, J., Simpson, P., Venus, V., Muchada, P., Kazanjian, G., Bye, B. L., Oliveira, M., Paredes, H., Sprinks, J., Witter, A., Cruz, B., Das, K.,& Woods, S. M. (2024).

CROPS: changing the scale of citizen science towards the transnational level. In ARPHA Proceedings, 6, 101–105.

Sprinks, J., Maccani, G., Fraisl, D., Leal, A. S., Gras-Velazquez, A., Liconti, A., Fritz, S., Azevedo, C., Ceccaroni, L.,& Parkinson, S. (2024).

A One Health Social Science Approach to Water Security and Gender Equity in Rural Uganda. In One Health Cases, 2023, ohcs20230026.

Nankanja, A., Ndyamuhaki, I., Ssemulondo, I., Wamema, Z., Ceccaroni, L., & Streichert, L. C. (2023).

The Role of Citizen Science in Promoting Ocean and Water Literacy in School Communities: The ProBleu Methodology. In Sustainability, 15(14), 11410.

Ceccaroni, L., Woods, S. M., Butkevičienė, E., Parkinson, S., Sprinks, J., Costa, P., Simis, S.G.H., Lessin, G., Liñán, S., Companys, B., Bonfill, E., & Piera, J. (2023).

Advancing the productivity of science with citizen science and artificial intelligence.

Ceccaroni, L., Oliver, J. L., Roger, E., Bibby, J., Flemons, P., Michael, K., & Joly, A. (2023).

Design of a platform to measure the impact of citizen science.

Sprinks, J., Ceccaroni, L., Woods, S., Parkinson, S., & Gumiero, B. (2022).

A Practical Approach to Assessing the Impact of Citizen Science towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In Sustainability, 14(8), 4676.

Parkinson, S., Woods, S. M., Sprinks, J., & Ceccaroni, L. (2022).

How Networks of Citizen Observatories Can Increase the Quality and Quantity of Citizen-Science-Generated Data Used to Monitor SDG Indicators.  In Sustainability, 14(7), 4078.

Woods, S. M., Daskolia, M., Joly, A., Bonnet, P., Soacha, K., Liñan, S., … & Ceccaroni, L. (2022).

Impact assessment of citizen science: state of the art and guiding principles for a consolidated approach. In Sustainability Science, 16(5), 1683-1699.

Wehn, U., Gharesifard, M., Ceccaroni, L., Joyce, H., Ajates, R., Woods, S., … & Wheatland, J. (2021).

Coordinator perceptions when assessing the impact of citizen science towards sustainable development goals. In Sustainability, 13(4), 2377.

Sprinks, J., Woods, S. M., Parkinson, S., Wehn, U., Joyce, H., Ceccaroni, L., & Gharesifard, M. (2021).

Contours of citizen science: a vignette study. In Royal Society open science, 8(8), 202108.

Haklay, M., Fraisl, D., Greshake Tzovaras, B., Hecker, S., Gold, M., Hager, G., Ceccaroni, L., … & Vohland, K. (2021).

Impact assessment of citizen science: state of the art and guiding principles for a consolidated approach. In Sustainability Science, 1-17.

Wehn, U., Gharesifard, M., Ceccaroni, L., Joyce, H., Ajates, R., Woods, S., … & Wheatland, J. (2021).

The Science of Citizen Science. In Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4.

Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perelló, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R., & Wagenknecht, K. (2021).

Creating Positive Environmental Impact Through Citizen Science. In  The Science of Citizen Science (pp. 373-395). Springer, Cham. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58278-4_19.

van Noordwijk, T., Bishop, I., Staunton-Lamb, S., Oldfield, A., Loiselle, S., Geoghegan, H., & Ceccaroni, L. (2021).

Citizen Science, Health, and Environmental Justice.  In The Science of Citizen Science, 219.

Ceccaroni, L., Woods, S. M., Sprinks, J., Wilson, S., Faustman, E. M., Bonn, A., … & Kimura, A. H. (2021).

EU-Citizen.Science: A Platform for Mainstreaming Citizen Science and Open Science in Europe. Data Intelligence 2021, 3:1, 136-149.

Wagenknecht, K., Woods, T., García Sanz, F., Gold, M., Bowser, A., Rüfenacht, S., Ceccaroni, L. and Piera, J., 2021.

The Science of Citizen Science Evolves. In The Science of Citizen Science (pp. 1-12). Springer.

Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perelló, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R. and Wagenknecht, K. (2021).

A Conceptual Model for Participants and Activities in Citizen Science Projects. In The Science of Citizen Science (pp. 159-182). Springer.

Lemmens, R., Falquet, G., Tsinaraki, C., Klan, F., Schade, S., Bastin, L., Piera, J., Antoniou, V., Trojan, J., Ostermann, F. and Ceccaroni, L. (2021).

Citizen Science, Health, and Environmental Justice. In The Science of Citizen Science (pp. 219-239). Springer.

Ceccaroni, L., Woods, S. M., Sprinks, J., Wilson, S., Faustman, E. M., Bonn, A., Greshake Tzovaras, B., Subirats, L., and Kimura, A. H. (2021).

Creating positive environmental impact through citizen science. In The Science of Citizen Science. Springer.

van Noordwijk, C.G.E., Bishop, I., Staunton-Lamb, S., Oldfield, A., Loiselle, L., Geoghegan, H., & Ceccaroni, L., 2021.

The Science of Citizen Science. Springer.

Vohland, K., Land-Zandstra, A., Ceccaroni, L., Lemmens, R., Perello, J., Ponti, M., Samson, R., & Wagenknecht, K. (Eds.) (2021).

Citclops: A next-generation sensor system for the monitoring of natural waters and a citizens’ observatory for the assessment of ecosystems’ status. PloS ONE, 15(3), e0230084.

Ceccaroni, L., Piera, J., Wernand, M. R., Zielinski, O., Busch, J. A., Van Der Woerd, H. J., & Velickovski, F., 2020.

Opportunities and Risks for Citizen Science in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 4(1), 29.

Ceccaroni, L., Bibby, J., Roger, E., Flemons, P., Michael, K., Fagan, L., & Oliver, J. L., 2019.

Defining principles for mobile apps and platforms development in citizen science. Research Ideas and Outcomes 3: e21283

Sturm, U., Gold, M., Luna, S., Schade, S., Ceccaroni, L., Kyba, C.C.M., Claramunt, B., Haklay, M., Kasperowski, D., Albert, A. and Piera, J., 2018.

Developing mobile applications for environmental and biodiversity citizen science: considerations and recommendations. In Multimedia tools and applications for environmental & biodiversity informatics, pp.9-30. Springer, Cham

Luna, S., Gold, M., Albert, A., Ceccaroni, L., Claramunt, B., Danylo, O., Haklay, M., Kottmann, R., Kyba, C., Piera, J. and Radicchi, A., 2018.

Artificial intelligence and earth observation to explore water quality in the Wadden Sea. Earth Observation Open Science and Innovation, 15, pp.311-320

Ceccaroni, L., Velickovski, F., Blaas, M., Wernand, M.R., Blauw, A. and Subirats, L., 2018.

Citizen science technologies and new opportunities for participation

Mazumdar, S., Ceccaroni, L., Piera, J., Hölker, F., Berre, A., Arlinghaus, R. and Bowser, A., 2018.

Citclops: data interpretation and knowledge-based systems integration. International Journal of Spatial Data Infrastructures Research, 13, pp.24-37.

Ceccaroni, L., Velickovski, F., Steblin, A. and Subirats, L., 2018.

Citizen science terminology matters: Exploring key terms. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 2(1), pp.1-20

Eitzel, M.V., Cappadonna, J.L., Santos-Lang, C., Duerr, R.E., Virapongse, A., West, S.E., Kyba, C.C.M., Bowser, A., Cooper, C.B., Sforzi, A., Metcalfe, A.N., Harris, E.S., Thiel, M., Haklay, M., Ponciano, L., Roche, J., Ceccaroni, L., Shilling, F.M., Dörler, D., Heigl, F., Kiessling, T., Davis, B.Y. and Jiang, Q., 2017.

Civic education and citizen science: Definitions, categories, knowledge representation. In Analyzing the Role of Citizen Science in Modern Research, pp.1-23. IGI Global

Ceccaroni, L., Bowser, A. and Brenton, P., 2017.

Analyzing the role of citizen science in modern research. IGI Global

Ceccaroni, L. and Piera, J. eds., 2016.

Crowdsourcing technologies for the monitoring of the colour, transparency and fluorescence of the sea. In Proceedings of Ocean Optics XXI, Glasgow, UK, pp.8-12.

Wernand, M., Ceccaroni, L., Piera, J. and Zielinski, O., 2012